I wish that I had started taking photos way back when I first started this blog, but better late than never. It’s sort of crazy how things can grow. You think you’re done, only to discover that you’re just getting started. I definitely didn’t think that I’d still be writing in this same blog 2 1/2 years after starting it, but I am.

After seeing a similar post on Pat Flynn’s blog (Smart Passive Income) I thought that it would be neat to do the same thing on this blog. Granted, this blog is no where near as big as his is, but still. I think visuals are a neat way of tracking any sort of progress.

I’m actually recording daily audio clips after my vocal sessions. I want to track the improvement of my singing voice (yes, I’m learning to sing), so that I will never be able to take for granted how far I’ve actually come.

The reason that this is important to me is that I often feel like I need to go all in right off the top. I fall into the trap ALL THE TIME of thinking “well, I’m not good now, so what’s the point of trying.” Or worse than that, thinking that I have reached the height of what I’ll ever be able to do and stopping.

I’m beginning to appreciate how important it is that you always just do your best.

I’ve started thinking about life like a lidded pot of water. With every good decision you make that water keeps getting hotter and hotter. Eventually that lid will pop off as the water hits the boiling pot, but because it’s covered you never know when that time is going to be. Life’s like that. You just never know what could be bubbling under the surface. You need to trust that your skill level will improve, and things will get better. Trying to start at the top is too hard, and unrealistic. It’s a process. This is something that I have to remind myself of everyday.

So here is the visual growth of this blog over the last 2 months. I played with a lot of different ideas, and most of them resulted in a simplifying of the core idea.

VERSION 1.5

 VERSION 2

I ended up designing a cute little logo for myself and organizing all the content in a more efficient way. I created blocks with my favourite sections from the blog, and colour coding them according to the logo. I spent A LOT of time creating these rectangles…

 VERSION 3

only to delete them about 2 weeks later in favour of one big square that led simply to the “Start Here.” Page. It’s frustrating to know that I put in all of that work in, only to opt for a simpler design, but I guess that was part of the process.

The transformation is far from over. I’m still doing everything myself, and I know that eventually I will have to hand the reigns over to someone who is more qualified at designing websites, but I’m pretty happy at where it is right now.

ALSO, if you subscribed to my blog before, and suddenly discovered that you’re not receiving e-mails anymore. Make sure to resubscribe! I’ve put a lot of work into writing a nice e-mail to my subscribers with some information that I think you’ll find useful.